Encyclopedia of German Tanks of World War II, Peter Chamberlain and Hilary L. Doyle

This is a very comprehensive reference work on the German armoured vehicles of the Third Reich. Each major tank variant gets a full page, with detailed specifications, a production history and a brief service record. More minor variants are given less space, essential to fit them all into a reasonably sized volume!

The book is incredibly well illustrated - there are just over 1,000 black and white photographs, covering just about every variant mentioned in the book.

This book makes you realise just how many different versions of their main tanks the Germans produced, varying from simple improvements of a basic design through to frankly insane attempts to match massive artillery guns with tank fuselages. The inability of Germany to standardise on a small number of tank designs is often said to have reduced the number of tanks produced, and looking at this book one can see why!

The only flaw for me in the this book is a lack of translations of the official designations of the vehicles. Other than that this is an essential reference book for anyone who is interested in this subject.